More on UH’s new hires (Nesbitt, Christian) and the departure of Jason Phillips

New Houston coach Tony Levine was a busy man at the annual American Football Coaches Association convention on Monday and Tuesday.

Levine lined up nearly a dozen interviews for vacant spots on his coaching staff and filled two of them on Wednesday, hiring Stephen F. Austin offensive coordinator Mike Nesbitt to run the UH offense and Arizona State special teams coordinator and tight ends coach Jamie Christian to take over the special teams and inside receivers.

Meanwhile, former UH co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach Jason Phillips officially joined June Jones’ staff at SMU on Wednesday.

Here’s some info on Nesbitt

Nesbitt spent 2011 as SFA’s offensive coordinator, and the Lumberjacks ranked in the top 15 in the Football Championship Series in total offense, passing offense in scoring offense.

Prior to SFA, he was at West Texas A&M for four years and was the offensive coordinator in 2010. The Buffaloes finished second in Division II in passing offense and total offense and third in scoring offense. He coached receivers and quarterbacks prior to becoming OC.

He was part of Blinn College’s 2006 NJCAA national championship squad, serving as the offensive coordinator for the Buccaneers for two seasons.

Levine was looking for someone with a background in the Air Raid offense, which UH runs, and Nesbitt fits that. In his time as an offensive coordinator, that’s what Nesbitt has run and called plays in.

“In looking at his background, obviously in this offense and being a very, very successful playcaller and talking to a lot of people in the profession, he’s exactly what I’m looking for,” Levine said.

One concern in regards to Nesbitt’s hire is the lack of experience at the Football Bowl Subdivision level (Division I-A). Nesbitt has coached at multiple levels (junior college, Division II and FCS) but never at the FBS level.

“People can say ‘Well, he’s from FCS,'” Levine said. “They play football and they’re on scholarship too. So it’s all relative.”

One interesting thing to note about Nesbitt is that he’s an experienced playcaller. Levine was looking for someone with that experience since he said he doesn’t intend to call the plays. The hires of offensive line coach Lee Hays and Christian, who also have experience with the offense, will likely provide some of the continuity that Levine and UH was looking for.

Levine said he did interview some potential candidates that don’t run the Air Raid but ultimately decided that keeping the offense the same was paramount since UH has had so much success in it (the Cougars have ranked No. 1 nationally in total offense two of the last three seasons).

“We’ve recruited successfully to this offense,” Levine said. “We’ve got the players in place for this offense. To go out and to hire somebody to come in here and replace the best offense in the history of college football with a new scheme and a new system didn’t make sense to me.”

As for Christian, he will essentially take over Levine’s old role, coordinating the special teams and coaching inside receivers. Here’s some info on Christian:

He spent the last five seasons at Arizona State and has been the special teams coordinator for four of those seasons. He has coached tight ends for three seasons.

This season, Arizona State ranked in the top 10 in punt return and kickoff return average. The Sun Devils were fifth in punt return average and 10th in kickoff return average. They returned three kickoffs for touchdowns and one punt for a score. The Sun Devils ranked second in kickoff returns nationally in 2010.

Christian has spent much of his career working with Dennis Erickson. In addition to his stint at Arizona State, Christian was with Erickson at Idaho, Oregon State and with the San Francisco 49ers.

• • •

I had a chance to catch up with former UH co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach Jason Phillips, who joined June Jones’ coaching staff at SMU on Wednesday.

Phillips, 45, said it was time to move forward in his career and try something different. He couldn’t think of anyone better to do that with than Jones, whom he has had a relationship with since his playing days when he entered the NFL after starring as a UH receiver in 1987-88.

“He’s a great coach, he’s been a great mentor to me and a great friend,” Phillips said. “He was responsible for drafting me to Detroit and then going to Atlanta, I was one of the guys that he wanted to go over. I’m excited about reuniting with June and sitting down with him and putting our heads together and coming up with some kind of system that will be conducive to those guys continuing to win games and anything I can do to help facilitate that, that’s what I’m willing to do.

“He’s a great guy. He’s a man of his word. Every decision that I’ve made in football since I started coaching, he’s a guy that I’ve relied on heavily before making those decisions, so he’s been like a father figure to me. He’s someone that really cares about my future and feels the same way about my career that I do. I look forward to joining him and moving forward.”

As for leaving UH, Phillips said:

“I just think the timing is right. Dr. (Renu) Khator and Mack Rhoades made the right decision in Tony Levine and they’re going to move forward with him. Our kids are excited about that as well. I have an opportunity to do some things myself. Just like coach Levine said at his press conference, everybody has an opportunity to do some things based on the season that we had. I’ve poured everything into this university. Not to say I’m disappointed; it’s not an emotional decision for me. It’s time for me to move on.”

Phillips said he has no ill feelings towards UH or anybody at UH, including Khator, Rhoades, Levine and the players. He said he’ll continue to support them and was grateful for the opportunity afforded to him to coach at UH, which he did for nine seasons over three separate stints, the most recent one being the last four years.

“I have no ill feelings toward this university,” he said. “The University of Houston is my university. As the slogan reads, ‘I am the pride.’ There is no way that I will ever have any ill feelings toward this place. I will continue to support the University of Houston, Dr. Khator, Mack Rhoades, Tony Levine and the players here. I’ve got great relationships with a lot of the players on this team and I have great relationships with a lot of the recruits that are coming in here that are going to continue the success of this program and I have no intentions of doing anything to harm this program in any way, none. So there are no ill feelings at all.”

Phillips said he felt like he was treated “great” while he was at UH. Levine said he made it clear to Phillips that he wanted him to stay, but he understood why Phillips felt it was time to move forward.

“Naturally, what he’s meant to our program, you can’t put into words,” Levine said. “If anybody ‘Bleeds red,’ it’s Jason Phillips. He’s done a great job here. I think this is an opportunity he felt like he had to explore and he’s going to get a chance to go there and maybe have a chance to do some things there that he didn’t get a chance to do here.

“He was definitely given an opportunity to stay. I wanted him to stay and I thought I gave him a great opportunity to stay and he wanted to explore this, which I understand.”

• • •

Quick update: I have confirmed that Levine made another addition to the staff, bringing back former UH graduate assistant Marcus White to the staff as the Cougars’ offensive quality control coach. White comes from Tarleton State where he worked under new UH offensive line coach and former Tarleton State offensive coordinator Lee Hays.

White was a graduate assistant at UH in 2010 before joining Tarleton State in 2011. He takes the offensive quality control position vacated by Kenny Bell, who has joined Kevin Sumlin’s staff at Texas A&M.

Everyone is talking about FCS coaches as this is bad. Did you see what the coach from Harvard did to the DL last year? The program just wasn’t sold on Phillips as an OC. That is why Kingsbury was promoted to co-OC. I like Phillips but he had never had OC experience before and with Sumlin, he had been an OC and could help in play calling. From what is said it sounds like Levine would have liked to kept Phillips in a position other than OC. The fact Stewart was let go says loud and clear Levine was not confident in putting the D or the O into the current guys hands.

Having a lot of FCS experience is much more than Phillips had when he was named OC. Sumlin promoted him and possibly Kingsbury too fast. Since Holgerson left, UH had Sumlin calling some plays and trying to groom a OC. Now we have an experienced OC.

If Mack is reading this, I love what you have done and all but schedule big12 opponents. This is the time to get it on paper because if we get another Keenum, they won’t want to do it to avoid an upset. Please Mack Rhoades, please.

It takes two to Tango. You know that A&M, UT and Baylor aren’t interested. Too much risk. After what happened to OK State and Tech when they tried to play us, I don’t think they are too interested either.

Krig, that is your OPINION which is a far cry from either truth or reality. If you talk to people who actually know something they will tell you UH has a very difficult team getting top tier teams to schedule them for the very reasons that Mike notes. We’ve played many “big name” i.e. BCS teams over the past 15 years. Most will never schedule us again. You think LSU wants to take a chance that UH will go into Baton Rouge and beat them again. They recruit heavily in the Houston area and that could really hurt their efforts to lure guys across the border. Same for Alabama. I doubt if Oklahoma State wants any more to do with UH. And to be sure A&M and UT are trying their darndest to pretend we do not exist. How’s that going guys?

UHfan79, your response has no semblance to truth or reality, except with the delusion of grandeur by UH fans that major programs are afraid to play UH. Major programs like A&M, UT, LSU, etc. are not afraid to play UH. People in the know understand that. Instead, it is about lack of benefit. Moreover, UH does get a major program generally every year, which evidence that progarms are not afraid. And while UH when having a good competitive team does win against a major program ocassionally, it is not an experience that makes major programs afraid. Drop the delusion and get a clue.

I actually tend to agree with Clay’s point about the lack of benefit. I wouldn’t call it “fear” so much, but it’s a lose/lose for an AQ power program to play Houston. If they beat UH, they’re supposed to. If they lose, it’s bad news. That’s why I think good non-AQ teams often have struggles scheduling good AQ programs to play them.
-SK

I agree with Sam but you have to admit their is an element of fear. OU is one of the few programs that takes risk in their offseason schedule. Even if OS who thinks the probability of UH winning is 40% that puts enough fear not to schedule this year. This year had OS who and UH played there is a chance OS Who would had been out of the NCG discussion in week 3 and UH been in the NCG discussion just before losing to USM.

The fear isn’t there is a huge chance we lose. The fear is in weeks 1 to 4 when our team is still getting in shape, no preseason in college football, we can’t play a team that even has a 20% chance of beating us. Losing to most non-AQs means no chance at a BCS bowl. So they either schedule an AQ or a team that is sure win like a FCS, MAC, WAC, or Sunbelt team.

I think most people don’t realize when we say fear it means they are scared they might lose and a loss to an unranked team will cost them the season not that they know UH will beat them. Ironically, if we can stay in the BCS discussion that fears lessens. Losing to a top 15 team doesn’t kill your season. Losing to an unranked team should. So if like BSU and TCU, UH can stay in the rankings there is less fear for better programs to schedule us and more incentive for lower BCS programs to schedule us. There are a dozen BCS teams this year who would have liked to play UH thinking they had a shot at beating a top 15 team. Had they expected that when the schedule was made they would have scheduled us.

Clay, first of all you are in no position to speak to my mental status. But your little rant does give us an insight to yours. You might also want to take time to actually read and think about what you read instead of posting a knee-jerk response. Two words might help both you and Sam here: what and why.

First of all, at no point have I EVER said any team was “afraid” to play UH. Speaking of delusions, Clay, that one is on you. And if we are going “diagnostic” here (I’m sure you are well trained in this area) I would suggest you are projecting your own irrational animosities on UH fans. (We could discuss the issues around the term “irrational”, but it basically means not rational.) Please, please, please show me where I used the word “fear”. What Mike said was that teams do not show an interest in playing UH. I totally agree. Now that is a “what”: they are not interested. He also provided his opinion on the motivation of these teams in not scheduling UH: “too much to risk”. Can anyone find the word “fear” in that statement? That term, fear, was introduced by Krigilski and I might speculate it represents his own dark motivations, not the facts of the matter. Mike simply stated a truth, a “what” if you will, and I simply supported his statement. It’s a simple argument, and I hope you can follow it. That simple enough?

Now, Krigilski , or whatever alias he is using at the moment (Clay??), was quick to IMPUTE a motive of fear. For the simple minded among you, one more time, neither Mike nor I used the word “fear”. I merely agree that many teams, for many reasons, will go out of their way to avoid playing UH. Now, if I might be so bold, it is my observation and opinion (that I share with Mike) that is because they do not want to risk losing to UH, or otherwise looking bad.

I chastised Krig to own his statement as his OPINION, to which he is entitled even if he never seems to support it with any facts or data. But he never does this. Instead he routinely posts this dribble as though he had some corner on the truth. Still with me folks? Note also, that while I confronted Krigilski (Clay?), I did not personalize my comment to him.

So, to sum up my response, the “what” is that many teams refuse to play UH. As Sam notes, in many cases the motivation, the “why” if you will, is that they have much to lose and little to gain. Or at least that is their perspective, in MY OPINION.

Now, that takes on added dimensions when we are talking about our Texas (the state) brethren. They just want UH to cease to exist. It ain’t going to happen folks, so better get used to having us around. They are waging a war of attrition and have been doing so since the demise of the SWC. (Anyone wants to argue that, bring it on.) And Clay, check that attitude if you want a dialogue with me. I can get personal too; you really don’t want me to do that, I promise. Hmmm, makes me wonder if a spitting match is what you are really after.

Then UT could play UH to keep it’s presence in the Houston area rather than whooping up on t
Rice every year. Those games are actually getting closer too. Oh I just remembered, they’re STILL upset about the bleacher incident 10 years ago.

Clay, Sam, Lack of benefit excuse sounds like a bit of fear to me. No one is saying the players fear playing, it is the AD and the HC that are afraid of losing their top 25 rating and potential recruits by losing to the Coogs. I am aligned with UHFan79.

So, UH is a much stronger team than Rice. Then why is UH’s record is 2-2 against Rice in football the past four years? Matter of fact Rice swept UH in all men’s major sports not 20 years ago but a season before last. How could that be, according to your statement you make it sound UH is far more superior to Rice and UT should be ashamed on [“whooping up on Rice every year”].

[“Those games are actually getting closer too”] It can’t get any closer than actually losing to Rice like UH exactly did. Right? UT only plays one Houston team from 2012 through 2017 and do you really think UT is going to lose [“its presence in the Houston”].

Can’t wait for Big East play. The East Coast press will trash UH because of their fans. Don’t forget to remind those East Coast teams how great UH is by telling them about those 2 conference titles, 2 bowl wins an finishing ranked once over the past 14 seasons in that juggernaut called C-USA. That should make them feel better about losing Va. Tech, Miami, Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, W. VA. and almost TCU and replacing them with UH.

I certainly would have liked to have seen some coaches with Div I experience hired. This staff will either continue the progression towards an elite program or it will not. If UH fails to go .500 next season, eyebrowns are going to raise. We cannot afford to loose momentum at this time. New conference, new stadium, too many positives to take the wind out of our sails now. So, for now, the key is to recruit well and hold onto those commitments. This coaching staff may work out well, but we won’t know until September. Let’s all stay positive.

I am definitely not happy about the hires. I feel as if any momentum we had entering the next couple of years just stopped and might have headed backwards without even playing a game. Sure, we are not a major BCS school but we arent at the level that every single new hire has to be from d2 or d-1a. If they dont excel and i do mean excel this first year against cusa opponents, people will start to turn on them

I hope that our fans are prepared to give Levine and his new staff more than a year. In addition to those guys settling into their new jobs, we are losing many of our best players. I don’t think that we are deep enough to readily replace Case, our four best WRs, two of our top three RBs, the leader of our OL, our best DE, best OLB and best ILB (though I won’t be surprised if Mathews becomes as good as McGraw). If we want a coach who is committed to UH, I think that we need to demonstrate some commitment to our coach. This past year and the ’09 season set very high standards, but I won’t necessarily blame the new staff if we fail to win big this year.

Another concern is that we were just beginning to compete with bcs schools for recruits that they actually want! How does this not have some sort of negative effect on recruiting? Im tired of UH having the mindset of doing more with less talented players, how about getting better talented players just all around.

I’m in total agreement with you. Phillips was ‘gone’ the instant he knew Levine was to be hired. Many people gave me “thumbs down” when I predicted his departure. He will be missed and it is a major loss for the team and fans.

Well it goes without saying that the proof will be in the pudding. It sounds like both gentlemen have enjoyed success. Nesbitt is really the unknown in this story. However, it sounds like he’s had success wherever he’s gone. I’m going to trust Levine on this one. It sounds like he knew what he wanted and that’s what Nesbitt brought to the table. As someone who has been promoted to the big chair in his career, I can tell you that hiring your staff is something that you KNOW is a HUGE deal. I’m sure Levine knows that he’s putting most of his chips in with Nesbitt.

Sorry to see Jason Philips go. He was a class act all the way out the door, even though there have to be some sore feelings over being passed over. I wish him well in all his future endeavors (unless he’s playing the Cougars of course!). As a 1992 graduate of UH, I have enjoyed watching him grow from an elite WR to a great coach. Jason, thank you for all of your hard work for UH. This alumn appreciates it greatly.

I agree about JP. Even though it’s hard to imagine that he doesn’t feel a bit snubbed he’s taken the high road, at least publicly, and said all the right things. I wish him all the best, aside from when SMU is playing UH.

Christ on a crutch…Rhodes has really messed up this time. My suspicions are confirmed, Levine was not a good hire. To hire Div 2type coaches is an insult to this university, because they will not be up to the task. We are sliding backwards folks, all because MR made a horrible decision that will set us back at least a decade. Why does he have to be so cheap and take the easy way out. It does not make much sense, as we were alma there. Now we will be sliding Mack to the days of Dana Dimel.thanks MR for really messing up all the progress and great strides we have made. I am thoroughly disgusted and dismayed at all. That has happened in just a few short weeks.

Hey I’m all for everyone having their opinions, that’s what makes these exchanges great, but I’m curious as to how you can declare the hire a failure without a game having been played under the new staff? It might be a terrible hire, it might be a great hire. We don’t have any ideas until they actually hit the field. I seem to remember a lot of fans on this blog space clamoring for a certain FCS coach to be a candidate for the head coaching job (Willie Fritz, Sam Houston). That guy didn’t have any FBS experience either. A guy that a lot of UH fans would have loved to have seen as a head coach, Chad Morris from Clemson, is only two years removed from being a high school football coach. Gus Malzahn is another example of a coach that went from high school to D-I that had success. I’m not saying it’s a good hire or a bad hire, but I think it’s a little soon to declare it a failure. It may be a little underwhelming in terms of name value or cachet, but since when did hiring a big name guarantee wins?
-SK

Maybe he would have been. I think to a certain extent, good coaches are good coaches at any level. That doesn’t apply to everyone but I think it applies to some. I have no idea whether it applies to Nesbitt and his future as an OC but we’ll all find out eventually.
-SK

Levine sure seemed to handle himself and his team well against Penn St. Had he not been trying to protect Tom Bradley in his quest to be named head coach there that may well have been a blow out. If you saw the post game interview the first out of Bradley’s mouth was to congratulate Levine. That was a sincere payback.

Wow. Pessimistic much Diehardcougar? I’m not sure how you get any of what you just spewed out of what’s happened. Did you think we were going to lure Mack Brown from UT or something? I don’t think that the Levine hiring was made to save money, but about finding the best person (who wanted the job) for the job. Let’s all be perfectly honest with ourselves. We aren’t going to hire away a Div-1 offensive coordinator from a AQ school. That’s just not going to happen. We don’t have the money, and we don’t have the prestige. Levine went out and found someone who by all accounts can run the air raid offense. I’ve done some hobo research on Nesbitt and as I said in my own post, it sounds like the guy’s offenses have been able to put up video game numbers wherever he’s gone. Let’s at the very least give the guy a chance before we start running around declaring the sky is falling.

It’s been nice to have a packed stadium these last few years, but we don’t need fair weathered fans on the bus. Not sure why you would choose the moniker “diehardcougar” when you are so obviously not.

Again look at what the new DL coach did coming from Harvard(FCS). FCS is still division I. The new OC has much experience at OC than Phillips and Kingsbury have combined as of today. Neither had ever been an OC at ANY level not even HS. Yet a lot of fans were excited, me excluded, to hear Phillips would be OC and then when Kingsbury was promoted to Co-OC. Make no mistake the OC the last 2 years was Sumlin and he was training these guys.

Well, looks like we have the full spectrum of posts here. Support for a program is important to the success of the program. To the very negative here, you are not basing your assessments on the information at hand. These hires have all succeeded in their own right. Coach Levine was careful in his search. It’s clear he knew what he was looking for and he pushed the search until he found candidates who met his criteria. To me that fits the model HC that MR defined — the CEO. I think Cougar fans have a lot to look forward. The pessimists and nay-sayers here will gripe no matter what. They are a minority. The rest of us can look forward to an exciting new season. I’m renewing my season tickets. I might even add some née seats and upgrade my parking. Go Coogs.

What do we know about their recruiting credentials in the Houston area? I am a bit discouraged that we didn’t get an oc with more fbs experience. I know Levine states that keeping the same offense will provide continuity but I don’t think it works like that. The people and their experience in the highest level of competition does have something to do with it. I think the program is past the whole “learn on the job” candidates. We said we needed continuity but this isnt it. We’ve lost too many integral pieces of our past teams. My biggest fear is that we will be outcoached in the hc , oc and dc spots simultaneously.

I really hope I’m wrong and will keep faith in Levine. The program has come too far to revert back to the Dana Dimel days.

Tony Z,
As far as recruiting, I’m sure that Nesbitt has recruited the area because he’s been on the staff at three schools (Blinn, West Texas A&M and SFA) that do a heavy amount of recruiting in Houston. As for Christian, I’m not sure because he was at Arizona State. I know they come down and snag some players occasionally, but I’m not sure how involved Christian may or may not have been in those instances. As for Nesbitt, I get the concern about no FBS experience. That’s totally legitimate and we’ll all find out by time we get to the season whether that has an affect. You’re absolutely right in that there is something to be said for having experience at the highest level. So that will be worth watching. But I wouldn’t call Nesbitt a “learn on the job” candidate by any stretch. You know who a true “learn on the job” candidate was? Kliff Kingsbury, UH’s recently departed rising star OC. Kingsbury had never been a primary playcaller nor had he been a full-time paid assistant coach at any level before he took over playcalling for UH’s offense. Prior to his being named co-OC two years ago, he was a quality control assistant. Nesbitt has no “learning on the job” to do because he already has experience as the primary coordinator/playcaller in this offense, which neither Kingsbury or Dana Holgorsen had on their resumes prior to assuming those duties at UH.

Experience can be grossly overrated guys! I think as long as you have someone who is knowledgeable and intelligent we will be fine! Too many people over-hyped experience for everything in life! Sometimes, you could have someone with less experience doing way better than someone with more experience. I’ve seen it happened too often to dismiss someone just because he has less experience.

Smart people learn fast and will make necessary adjustments to the things that they do to achieve success. Let’s give Coach Levine the benefit of the doubt and see what he can do next year before we rule him out as a quality coach.

I was extremely impressed with Coach Levine’s preparation for the bowl game against Penn State! Extremely! Not just that he made sure there was no slacking off from the days of Sumlin, but he elevated! Big time! He just about completely changed the offense from a pass/run offense to an almost exclusively pass offense and completely threw Penn State off guard! Who would have though that a team could use just the passing game to dominate another team? It was bold and unpredictable and 100% effective! And you know what? I love it! And Coach Levine could do it again! Just give him a chance.

Amen Sam. The more I read about this guy, the more excited I get. From the SFA team website: Nesbitt has left a paper trail of success during his time in the collegiate ranks. Over the course of the past 10 seasons, Nesbitt’s teams have produced a 85-24 (.780) overall record.

I totally agree and concur with you Sam. there are only four or five schools that run the same air raid type offense that UH runs that is more pass heavy, so the pool of coaches with FBS experience in this type of attack are limited to those who were either at Texas Tech under the Mike Leach coaching tree(Dana Holgerson-WVU head coach, Art Briles-Baylor head coach, Kliff Kingsbury-OC at A&M, Riley Dodge-OC at East Carolina) or those who coached under guys like Mike Blakney at Troy, Hal Mummee, formerly of Kentucky and New Mexico State, or June Jones, who has run the system for well over 20 years in college and the nfl……

I think the hire of Mike Nesbitt to run our offense was a great hire…he has success at multiple levels and can continue to build what UH has done the last few years on offense. UH will have an experienced QB in David Piland, who played nine games in his freshman season last year after Keenum and Cotton Turner were lost for the season, and he has three years of eligibility…the kid threw for 3600 yards in 2010 in on the job training and if UH can find some replacements at WR, they will be fine…

the schedule for 2012 is not that challenging…Texas St, LaTech @UCLA, plus one more non conference game in addition to their last C-USA schedule…..UH will play home games vs Tulsa, UTEP, UAB, and Tulane and road games at Rice, Marshall, SMU and East Carolina….hopefully the Coogs will be back in the mix next season as well before heading to the big east in 2013

Krigilski
Why don’t you go back to where ever it is you came from. I think it might be College Station but you sure are wasting your time here. I haven’t read one thing you have to say that hasn’t been either venomous or just stupid.
You might be Eloren or whoever that old troll was,(Matt) maybe.
As far as all of the naysayers go, I think that not one of you has ever coached a college football team and you all make great armchair quarterbacks , but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read this kind of negativism here before. And it usually ends up being nothing like all the doomsday predictors say.
After Sumlin was hired, many questioned whether that was a good hire for a while. Instead of jumping to conclusions I think it might be a good idea to let Levine work this all out and instead of giving ultimatums about next year let him have the benefit of the doubt. I hope you all remember we are loosing quite a few quality athletes so I expected things to backtrack a little.
I mean we are losing Keenum, Carrier, Edwards, McGraw, Brown, Johnson, Beall, Hayes, Turner, Hunter, Thompson, Saenz, to name a few. Thats a boatload of talent and experience that has to be replaced.
I can’t say whether it is the right choice either , but I do think we should give Mack and Levine the opportunity to show what they can do. Lets face it. Levine was able to win the game against Penn State. Thats more than Sumlin did with the same assistants against Southern Miss.
Go Coogs!

From footballscoop.com:
“West Virginia: We hear Dana Holgorsen could announce new additions to the staff as early as tomorrow. Hearing Oklahoma State associate head coach / special teams coordinator / safeties Joe DeForest will be part of the additions in a senior capacity. Not confirmed; but we’re hearing it a lot.”
——————————
Now we know why DeForest was not interested in the UH job.

You know, the more I read these things, the more I’m able to let these decisions by Levine kinda sink-in. As terribly dismayed I was by the team’s recent exits, I’m slowly realizing the new hires are actually not half bad, regardless of their lack of Div-1A experience. I mean you talk about teams in lower divisions that are scheduled in out-of-conference games against Div-1A juggernauts & Top 25 ranked teams, there have been several justifiably great “upsets” that have occurred by teams such as Appalachian State (for example), a team by the way I would never take lightly at any level. Now SFA in Div-1AA has been offensively competitive this last year, the year of Nesbitt’s tenure there, and the only thing that would concern me is the loss to Baylor (48-0), but overall for last season, SFA was averaging 35.7 points/game with a comparable 3500 passing yards/season (over 4800 yds total offense). That’s 440 average yards per game. Now UH had the most prolific passer in college football history, but these numbers for another Air-Raid “Holgerson-esque” team aren’t half-bad. And if anyone’s to groom our future QBs, Nesbitt was THE qb-coach at SFA in addition to the OC. I’m excited to see what happens at UH if Nesbitt only had 1 year to make SFA into a Top 15 offense in Div-1AA.

I also congratulate Levine on mixing things up by being able to find outside hires as well as bringing back some of the old-time Cougars (Hays, White). The fact Levine can hire from outside the UH neighborhood makes me confident Levine can hire from anywhere in the country (plus how great is it that Todd Graham at ASU gets one-final blow from a former CUSA foe in that Christian is coaching special teams at UH instead of ASU?) Overall, I’m beginning to see Levine and his “method to his madness” tactics at play. If he’s anything like that Levine coach I saw coach against Penn St, I’d say we have a legitimate “Mad Scientist” at the reins, and I’ll take a mover-and-a-shaker anyday. Good luck replacing Phillips, Coach, though I’m pretty sure you already know what you’re doing ^_^

I like the hires and all those who think they are a fail because they aren’t “major” college coaches should remember the Peter Principle. There are a lot of coaches at big schools who are mediocre and have reached their limits. I have no problem taking chances on up and comers. Vince Lombardi was once a high school coach.

If they do excel here let’s hope that we can keep them around for awhile.

Not sure this comment even warrants a response. You clearly don’t follow basketball recruiting very closely. Coach Dickey and his staff are killing it. It may take a year or so for the results to start showing, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this current team gel and make a surprising run at some point. Until we start supporting our programs to the tune of $60 million to fully fund the football stadium and another $40 million to refurbish the Hof, it doesn’t matter who the AD or the coaches are. We won’t compete with the programs you want us to compete with until our facilities rival theirs.

I’ll take this staff over the staff Briles put together. And lest we forget, people whined about the Sumlin hire wanting the old regime of Jack Pardee brought back or, as an alternative, Mike Haywood ( from my old high school STHS). As I recall, Jim Tressel had no D-1 head coaching experience before his gig at OSU. At least these gus have college experience, unlike the Briles crew, some of whom came from the high school ranks. Give these guys a chance.

I’m always nervous and leary when coaching staff changes occur. I’m really dissappointed in Jason for leaving to SMU. To me, it doesn’t makes sense to go, what appears, laterally. So many commments quoted as saying he bleeds red and loves everyone at his alma mater, but yet he goes to UH’s new conference arch rival. he sure looks like he’s holding a grudge to me. If he was going as a head coach to a lower football division school or an OC to a larger school program, I would understand; but, SMU?! He should have stayed and continued his offensive prowess here and then gone somewhere as a head coach, if he truly bled red. I wish him well; he’s a great person and great coach. I am just very dissappointed in his current decision.

It wasn’t lateral – he’s making more money and SMU’s facilities are state of the art. They’ve spend $140 million in the last ten years on athletic projects. How does UH compare during the same time frame?

Considering that Phillips was passed over for both the HC job and even the OC job for the bowl game can you really blame him for having an axe to grind? Keep in mind he was also a pretty good recruiter.
I think a part of JP’s decision to go to SMU has to do with him wanting to show MR that he made the wrong hire.

Read Phillips comments carefully. It doesn’t sound like it was his choice. It is rather odd that he comments he is not mad at UH and he will still support them. These are the words of a man that got a pink slip. Sumlin didn’t think he was great at OC or Kingsbury would not have been promoted. I believe Levine wanted him to stay as WR coach not OC and SMU offered him something better. Levine was never an OC like Sumlin and he can’t groom guys like Kingsbury and Phillips. He need someone with experience he could trust handing the offense over to. Sumlin’s promotion of Kingsbury is a clear signal that Sumlin did not trust Phillips to run the offense on his own and Sumlin may have felt he was doing too much of the play calling in ’10.
Reading Phillips’ comments I believe Levine told him he would not be OC but he would like him back at WR coach then SMU offered something better. I don’t think Phillips could have staid OC under Levine he didn’t have the experience from Levine to trust him to run the offense by himself.

Its interesting to note that SMU is communicating that Jason Phillips was hired into the SMU program but does not has a title yet but they want him actively recruiting….The Dallas media is questioning whether June Jones will relinquish offensive play calling or really let Jason Phillips be a full time offensive coordinator???? seems like they got Jason Phillips to recruit against his alma mater……

AzWestCoog,
When I talked to Phillips yesterday he said that he and Jones had not determined what his exact role would be. So yes, he doesn’t have a title yet. I think it goes without saying that recruiting will be a large part of his role.
-SK

Sure KK did not have playcalling experience…he also had the most prolific passer in NCAA history as his qb. It must have been real tough making all those play calls and having CK check them at the line. We now have an inexperienced head coach with an inexperienced coaching staff leading us into 2012 with an inexperienced qb. Gee, this reminds me of a team that came off losing two great qbs to the NFL and 2 coaches in four years as well. They were a top 25 team. They had improved their defense. They ran a high flying offense. And then one day they hired a guy with no head coaching experience and they fell off the college landscape for 20 fricking years. Oh yeah that was us, and Helton was his name. I am sure most of us would have blindly followed that as well and made excuses on internet message boards and blogs if they were around. This just is not passing the smell test.

100% correct. Rhoades should be questioned as to why Malzahn and the other hot assistants weren’t contacted. Even Akron got a better coach than UH. Everyone keeps comparing Levine to Briles and Sumlin but supposedly the program is much more advanced than when they arrived. If true, that should have dictated the hiring of an experienced HC who can coach at an AQ level. Something’s definitely wrong.

I’m going to assume that you graduated college in 1996 UHsigep96. If that’s the case you were in high school when UH had success with the run and shoot. I had a front row (or as close as I could get in the dome) seat to those high flying offense’s days. I will tell you a couple of things, I’m no expert on football Xs and Os, so I can’t tell you what the big difference is between the run and shoot and the air raid offense, but the truth that people seem to forget is that we had a difficult time against big, fast teams. They would either jam our receivers at the line or were able to keep pace with them preventing them from getting separation. In addition, our offensive line often didn’t give the QB enough time to pass. We were undressed on national television against Miami during the 1991 season as I recall. Defenses eventually figured out the run and shoot and there was the fact that the big boys (A&M and Arkansas)kept kicking our butts even during the R&S glory days because they had better athletes.

Second thing… Kim Helton made one monumental mistake and that is he abandoned the R&S when he basically only had R&S athletes on the team. He didn’t have the horses to run the traditional offense he wanted to run. That was a disaster. Levine isn’t doing that. He knows that the air raid offense is working and it looks like he went out of his way to find an air raid guru to run it. That may be the reason we haven’t lost any recruits to date.

Third thing…you aren’t taking into consideration that right around this time UH was reeling from NCAA sanctions that limited our scholarships and bowl eligibility. That certainly hurt. But the thing that basically landed us in a football ghetto was the fact that the SWC broke up and we were left out of the Big 12 or any other major football conference.

My point is that it’s easy to see make comparisons between the state of UH football in the early 90s and now and see correlations, but the reality is much, much different. We are on a major upswing. We are joining a better conference. We are going to get a new stadium. Season ticket sales are at an all time high. We have a president who understands the importance of football to the school.

I am going to make a prediction that we don’t win 13 games this season. We may not win 10. My goals for this season is to see the offense continue ticking under a new QB, to win at least seven games and to be competitive in our bowl. I’m sure you’ll call anything less than the national championship a disappointment. Like I said to someone else on the board, feel free to leave the party and leave your Cougar badge at the door.

Its okay to be a little concerned about the hires. But you have to also look at the resumes of these Coaches. Nesbitt is pretty impressive, He knows how to put up numbers regardless of what level. I actually take Coaching at Blinn and winning a NC has being a huge success for him, as we all know what kind of players Blinn produce. Our Linebackers were the Monsters on Defense this past season, so keeping Bryant and Hays was kind of big… Both coached as DC in the SEC and Big 12. All we need is an assistant that is from Houston, who is known in the area, that can recruit. UH should never be a below .500 team due to the fact that High School Football USA is in our back yard.

I’m satisfied with the hires, especially Nesbitt. All coaches start of small and he is clearly moving up the ranks – ” (junior college, Division II and FCS)” For people who aren’t happy with the decisions: how did you feel when they hired Briles, who came straight from coaching high school?

These coaches are good hires from an X’s and O’s standpoint. Nesbitt’s play calling experience running an air raid type offense will give the program the continuity it needs. I think he WILL prove to be a more than adequate replacement at the OC position. Christian has been an effective special teams coach at ASU and helped a kicker win the Groza award. The only question that remains to be seen is how will they be able to impact recruiting.

People need to appreciate the fact that coaches will change jobs, just like people in the business-world change jobs. UH has had football staff changes in almost every year dating back to the Art Briles-era. Usually it is 1 coach here, or one support person there, but the fact is that there are annual changes. Let’s give these new folks a chance before deeming the decisions are indications that the sky is falling.

I amazed me how much people are dissing these hires. Have all of you forgotten that Coach Kingsbury had 1 season as an offensive assistant before he was handed the keys to the offense? Coach Phillips was a big loss for the sole reason he was a good recruiter. He was Co-Offensive Cord but he didn’t call plays only Kingsbury did. The offense will be the same with only some minor changes. I believe we have an upgraded Offensive Line coach as Coach Anderson came from a FCS school as well. Coaching is a cycle.Don’t judge hires before they are even on campus.

How do you make the Special Teams coach The head coach when the strength of the team was the offense in which Phillips was over? True we can’t say it was a bad hire until a game is played but how do you justify that hiring when clearly The special teams played a part in us losing the game against Southern Miss. The bigger question is where was the Alumni when they hired Levine to voice their displeasure to Rhoads it’s cool to support Phillips on this blog but if you don’t go to the source it doesn’t mean nothing just saying. We all know race and politics played a factor in this hiring if Phillips partied with students and had DUI it would be different but he has good “character” and still didn’t get the job not to mention he was over a top ranked offense. At the end of the day I think it is sad to justify the hiring of Levine by saying he coached Tyrone Carrier true he returned some kicks but the last I checked Keenum played offense so when is Rhoades going to explain his decision in making the hire not to mentioned he was given the job before he coached the bowl game wow

Jason Phillips, here is a guy that bleeds cougar red, proven recruiter and goes to SMU in a similar capacity, just for more money and a quicker chance to be SMU’s head coach???

June Jones needs to get back into good graces with SMU alumni/players after the ASU debacle…JJ is no fool either…UH has been a thorn in SMU side for years now so what does June Jones do, he hires UH Jason Phillips(Recruiter/Coach), who JJones knows well enough to bring on board. JP knows everything about UH and JJones hopes to work that to his advantage….trust me SMU kids will rally around him the week before UH plays SMU this coming football season and JJ hopes that will give him the edge he needs to finally beat UH….I wont miss that game!!!!

I hope when the dust settles with all the new coaching changes that UH has stronger football program going forward into the Big East.

I wish I could be as excited as you are about these hires. As many have stated in the past, I believed that the hiring of Levine was made to ensure continuity on the OFFENSIVE side of the ball.
Continuity doesn’t mean offensive philosophy. Texas Tech lost Mike Leach and hired a Neal Brown, a spread guy, and they regressed remarkably. Our new OL coach was a spread-based OC at Baylor but didn’t have near the success there as Art Briles.
You kept saying that Tony Levine has “a ROLODEX” of coaches he’s worked with in the past (a reference you took from Kevin “Mr. Rolodex” Sumlin. However, these new hires seem to be PATCHWORK additions from the coaching convention. Where is the COHESION we were expecting to be seeing from a coach that was hired to maintain a staff.

Because, let’s get real. It’s not standard operating procedure for a Top 20 ballclub to hire a Special Teams Coordinator with no previous HC experience, and an OC from Stephen F. Austin. If we didn’t REALLY bring Levine in to keep the staff together (and, elevating our relatively NEW LB coach hardly equates to a status quo hire either), and we didn’t bring him here for any “ROLODEX” that you were mentioning, THAN WHAT IS THE DEAL?

This is night and day to the staff Sumlin brought in when he came to town. Dana Holgorsen may noy have had playcalling experience but we brought him in here to install a SYSTEM that he was groomed by MIKE LEACH to run on a D1 level.

Please tell me that you understand the subtle nuances of why we hired certain people before. Briles, Holgorsen, Sumlin, weren’t flying under the radar. Holgorsen turned down the Baylor OC job under Morriss. Briles brought tons of recruiting credibility and a reputation (even at the D1 level) as an offensive mind (given a lot of credit for Welker), and Sumlin transformed the aTm offense under R.C., directing Reggie Mc’s coming out party against OU.

Those guys really were connected… had Rolodexes… Reputations for recruiting talent.. I’d like a more critical assessment from you. The “lets wait and see” bit I can get from my buddy who doesn’t know jack squat about college football.

You people are HILARIOUS!!! What color is the sky in your world? If anyone, anywhere thought that Levine would be able to keep the coaching staff intact, then I have a bridge I want to sell you. We live in the real world. In this world things like prestige and money matter. I would like to think that things like tradition and honor are worth a damn, but I’m consistently proven wrong. Hiring Levine WAS keeping continuity in the program! He is obviously well regarded by the players and even the coaches who left had nothing but nice things to say about the guy.

What you see as someone putting together a patch work of coaches, I see as someone trying desperately to find the exact right person to fit the hole that’s in place. The funny thing to me at least is that I hope that Levine spent enough time finding the RIGHT person for the job and not the person who could do the specific job RIGHT. In other words, I hope that Nesbitt is the right person for the job because he’s a good coach, not because he runs the air raid offense.

People need to get a grip. Griping about any of this 10 days removed from teh end of this season is silly.

El Mavreau,
I wouldn’t call myself “excited.” All I’m saying is that I believe it’s too early to call it a failure when the guys he hired haven’t even coached a game yet. As for Levine, when he referred to continuity, he mentioned keeping the offense the same. Hiring Nesbitt does that since he learned the offense from the same guys that the previous staff learned it from. The new offensive line coach and inside receivers/special teams coach (both of whom have experience at AQ conference schools) have also run the Air Raid. Levine, nor Mack Rhoades, ever said that his hiring meant he had to keep staff members. And those guys were going to do what they wanted to do. A lot of them believe in Kevin Sumlin so they followed him there. Levine’s reputation is on the line here because this is his first head coaching job and I think to assume that he’s going to hire someone that he doesn’t believe is fully qualified to do the job is silly. Because if Nesbitt fails, then Levine’s time as HC will be short. That’s just the fact of the matter. The fact is that Nesbitt seems to be highly thought of in coaching circles, at least those that operate with the Air Raid.
-SK

Wow some of these comments just make me laugh. How people can be so negative about people who have never coached a game for us is unreal. And then you have a guy wanting Mack fired for hiring Dickey and Levine. Well Dickey took over a team that had little to no talent and now has a top 20 recruiting class coming in. That is how you build a basketball program. Levine had the Cougars more ready to play in the bowl game than they were any game this year. Usually the long layoff hurts teams much less a team with a coaching change. How about we give the new coaches a chance and show support for UH? Can we at least wait until the season starts before we start bad mouthing the coaches.

All you naysayers get a grip. Levine is well liked and respected by the players. Levine also showed in the Penn St game he can have his team focused and ready to play. For the most part it seemed to me he also managed the game well. He is highly reccomended by many prominent coaches at both the proffessional and college level. Give the man a chance to prove his worth before you start trashing him and his decisions. I for one feel the program is in good hands. Go Coogs !

He was given the job before he even coached the bowl game most teams at least wait until the last game to name the coach but he hadn’t even proven he can coach a team and yet he got the job tell me it isn’t something wrong with that picture. BTW, the offense was the strength of the team but yet you give the job to the special teams coached which played horrible against Southern Miss but yet you make him your head coach are you kidding me. Not to mention Phillips is alumni but Briles can get the job and we sell it he is alumni then he jumps ship and all of sudden he was a good coach although he never improved the defense just look at Baylors defense. At the end of the day Phillips got robbed because if it was about keeping continuity with the offense commong sense tells you to keep the guy that ran the offense to perfection huh especially sinced the hyped player on the team was the quarterback of that offense think about it.

To all the negative people posting here, I read similar comments when Kevin Sumlin was hired. No FBS head coaching experience, no FBS experience for assistants either. Those hires turned out pretty well, didn’t they? None of us has the wisdom of Rhoades or Levine in these matters. I trust them to do the best thing for UH.

I am extremely pleased that Levine has hired a coach that will continue the Cougar Air Raid. We are all a bit concerned about the lower level coaches. They might have to ramp up quickly, but until they fail, they deserve the Cougar Nation support. Levine certainly bought a lot of good will and patience from the Cougar Nation by beating Penn State.
Go COOGS!!

I am not quite sure what to think about this, true the names are a little underwhelming but I think everytime there is coaching turnover there is a sense of unease. When they hired Sumlin I was skeptical and that worked out pretty well. I am sure Levine knows what he is doing. All I know is that I can’t wait to see our coogs play next year.

Sam, has Stewart landed a job yet? Also will Matt Nicholson stay on staff? I got to meet him this year and he was a really nice dude as well as a younger guy that recruits and the sort would want to play for.

CoogsHouse13,
There are reports speculating that Stewart could land at West Virginia but it doesn’t sound like anything has been finalized. So officially, he doesn’t have another job yet. And I expect Nicholson to stay unless someone else wants to hire him as a full-time paid assistant for next year. Nicholson worked closely with linebackers coach Jamie Bryant and since Bryant is the new defensive coordinator, I anticipate that they’ll want to keep him on staff.
-SK

People should have a little more understanding of the reality of career football coaches….Levine’s future depends on who he hires and what they do. Levine knows this and don’t kid yourselves into thinking he’s stupid.
Give him credit…and Mack. Should things go downhill, and I don’t think they will…this new staff will not be around too long. I originally hoped Jason Phillips would be chosen….perhaps he will be back…in the meantime all the best to Tony and his program. Remember..it is his program.

Im disapointed that our staff has been dismantled, but Im excited that we have a young up and coming coaching staff. Let’s all continue to buy season tickets and use them, and travel to as many road games as possible to show our support to our univesity and football team.

It’s a shame that Sumlin decided to go this route. I get it that A&M has history and prestige and blah, blah, blah… but to basicallys lie and spit in our faces this way is not much better than what Art Briles did. The only reason he didn’t take the entire staff with him right away was the fact A&M had a bowl game. I would bet that if that wasn’t the case, he would have taken the entire staff with him if not only to stick it to us one last time.

The real issue is that Rhoades was unable to hire an experienced coach with HC, OC or DC experience. The Auburn OC goes to Ark. State and UH didn’t even interview him? Bowden goes to Akron and no phone call from Mack? Serious questions need to be answered.

Bob,
Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it. I’m waiting for UH to fulfill my open records request for Levine’s contract but from what I’ve heard it’s around 700K-800K base salary. Once I have the contract I’ll fill everyone in on the details. As for Malzahn and Morris, I can say with certainty that they weren’t interviewed. As to whether they were contacted, I’m not 100 percent sure. Based on what I can gather from my sources, I don’t think Malzahn was. Re: Morris, it’s unclear. Once Morris signed that contract extension with Clemson that included a hefty raise ($1.3M), I think that significantly lessened the chance of him going to UH, since I don’t think UH would have paid more than that amount for someone without previous head coaching experience. They would have paid more than that to keep Sumlin, though.
-SK

I think it is way too early to criticize the new hires. Nobody really new anything about Art Briles from Stephenville (then 2 short years at Tech as RB coach) and he turned our program around. These guys have experience in college football, they are young, their stats are good and im sure they are hungry. Plus, our system works. I say wait until Kickoff 2012 and we will see.

After listening to all of these comments I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree. I can not understand why Mac would not have hired Nick Saban. He has the experience that most people on this board are looking for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Realistically, I am an alumni and a Cougar Athletes Parent so I completely support all of the athletic teams. I want us to win in every sport. But we must realize that we are a step down from the big boys of college athletics in most sports. In my time at UH, the late 70’s, we played the best teams in the country and were ranked in the top 25 every year but we were still less “attractive” than the big name schools and we always will be. That does not mean that we can not get back to that level and have a ranked team every year. What we have to realize though is that we are not going to get the top recruit in the State of Texas to choose our school. We need to just let UT, A&M, OU and LSU fight it out for those guys. UH needs to focus on the 3rd and 4th best recruit because those guys are pretty darn good also and if we get that type of player we will have the talent to succeed.

Coaching is the same situation. Nick Saban, Less Miles and Urban Myer are not coming to UH nor are their top assistants. There are a lot of talented coaches out there that have not had the opportunity at these big schools but that can coach up some football, lets give them a chance because until we are that team that is ranked every year we will not get the big name coaches.

Lets give Coach Levine and HIS staff a chance to keep the program moving in the right direction. Will they succeed, I don’t know, neither does any one else. But I do know this, even if Mac had been able to hire Nick Saban there would be somebody on here that would have a problem with that also.

Used to say “In Dave I trust” Well – In MR I Trust with the tier 1 status (Renu Khator). Folks we have come a long way in a short period. As an 84 Grad literally growing up in the Yeoman days what we are seeing is really powerful stuff. Loved watching UH DESTROY UT in the dome – 60-40 under Ware (no pun intended).

Not too sure how this will work out, but the coaches have the tools (players) to reload. JP WILL be missed, great man, huge heart. KK was in for the ride, don’t blame him – hell he had the BEST QB in the nation that actually made his own calls, lest we no forget about JJ, PE, TC, Brick, etc…… Here’s some interesting news. Donald Hopkins (4 star recruit) has DECOMMITED from Mizzu and is ONLY interested in UH and Utah. Hmm, want to have his family and friends see him play – Note to Self — GET ON THE STICK he likes the H, get him. This is a kid that can start day one and Utah just talked to him recently (like today).

Lago Vista defensive tackle Donald Hopkins (6-foot-2 270 pounds) informed coaches from the University of Missouri that he was opening up his recruitment and that the Tigers were no longer in the picture.

Check with U. S. News and World Report. That Tier 1 is in research only. UH is still Tier 2 – not even Top 200 – in general academics. Entrance requirements are similar to another “four-year” university in Houston. Wrong again.

Rylight, you are correct about the U.S. News ranking, but there are two ways of looking at UH’s rank: 1. UH is not Tier One unless every ranking organization agrees, or 2. UH is Tier One if any organization states.

If BCS ranks UH number 1 but AP does not rank UH at all. Would UH be ranked?

If UH gains AAU status and U.S. News does not change its ranking, is UH Tier One?

Ry, did you just have a gas attack? What are you referring to? I once worked in a psych ward. It was pretty hard to keep up with some of the conversations. It was good prep for following some of the posts on this blog. But you lost me there.

Man I still remember those amazing beat downs we gave UT in the late 80s. It was after the game you mentioned that me and my buddy were jumped by six Longhorns who thought we had “cheered too loudly.” 100 percent true story. What they didn’t know is that we had about 16 buddies behind us who hit the head after too many beers. To make a long story short, those six Longhorns learned how to bleed Cougar red that night.

The Tigers announced they would leave the Big 12 for the SEC in November. Baylor has offered, as have Kansas and Iowa State, schools that would allow him to play out of state but have family members watch games in Texas. Houston currently is a major player in the Hopkins sweepstakes, as well.

We’re going to get a lot more attention from top flight recruits. UH is clearly a program on the rise plus we are in a major metropolitan area. No major problems accessing the city or the campus. The big plus will be the East Coast media. They will be all over this program and you cannot pay for that kind of publicity. It will be a very bright, but I believe we’ll be up to it. If we had been in the Big East this year, fair or not, Case Keenum’s picture would have been on the cover of every sporting magazine and newspaper in the country.

The critical hires will be Strength Coach, QB Coach and Recruiting Coord.

Jackson was here before Sumlin and completely changed the conditioning of our athletes which allowed for the fast pace of play.

Replacing Kingsbury with a former Air Raid QB is critical in Piland’s development.

Need to find someone with local HS ties to relplace McKinney and JP.

The rest of the Xs and Os will take care of themselves under Coach Levine. I was underwhelmed with his hire, but I agree he had a solid first game. Now he can fill out the staff, tie up recruiting and get ready for Spring Practice.

UH already has a QB coach in Nesbitt, as well as an OC. That is the second most important position in an Air-Raid offensive scheme. The most important thing for our offense is we find a great WR coach. Remember, in the air-raid, it’s the receiver’s yards after short-pass receptions that gain an offense their high-flying numbers (breaking tackles after reception / having lateral agility, & what-not)

Everyone is getting their opinion in here, so here’s mine: I would rather have a guy who wants the job and is willing to work his tail off. Levine seems to be one of these guys.
Notice that the COOGS went right down the field on the FIRST drive of the game against PSU and scored a touchdown? Our guys were ready to go at the start of the game. We were prepared and READY TO PLAY! Some games last year our guys looked asleep until the 2nd half.
May I remind my fellows the “big-time” FBS coaches, the ones with all the valuable FBS experience, produced that USM embarrassment on national TV?
If you can coach you can coach and it doesnt matter where you do it.
The new guys have something in common- they’ve been successful everywhere they’ve been. Doesn’t look like an accident to me….
Did everybody forget that we have FBS players these guys are coaching? Our first glance at how well UH is doing is signing day.

I was concerned the Cougars would come out flat against Penn. I was also concerned that all that time off would hurt the offense’s timing. Boy was I worried for nothing. Say whatever you want about Levine, but the guy had the team ready to play. Penn is lucky we didn’t put up 60 against them. Like I’ve said before, Levine now has as many bowl victories as the Cougars coach as Briles and Sumlin combined.

Those who don’t think that UT ,AM,Baylor,et al,aren’t scared forget that ,when we were finally let into the SWC,we virtually took it over.Won it the first year.Routinely whipped Texas rear end.We have beaten or nearly beaten Alabama,LSU,Ok.St.,UCLA,Texas Tech,Penn State,and on and on.Sure they’ve tried to hold us down.But we’re comin’ for ya’ anyway.Just have to make a giant end run to the East,and around the back down from the North.Coach Levine and his staff will continue the tradition.Go Houston !

Tim, this is clearly a team on the rise, and I don’t think even the trolls can deny that — although get ready for some kind of spin. But you are right. Last season was no fluke. The year before certainly was, losing our top two QBs. But the past 9 years have been an strong upward movement and it is just going to get better.

Just think, we did all this without the $20 million that the worst BCS teams received year in and year out. My motto is “Just Add Water”. We are already positioning ourselves at the top of the pile. Imagine what it will be like with even an extra $10 million a year and all that East Coast media pub. Just add water and watch it grow. The sky is the limit.

Wrong on all counts. UH was formally admitted to the SWC in 1971 BUT was not allowed to compete in FOOTBALL until 1976. And compete we did. You can use several measure here, and I guess people are going to pick their data to suite their point of view. We competed in FOOTBALL for TWENTY (20) years, during which time we went to FOUR (4) Cotton Bowls. That is the exact same number of Cotton Bowls as the University of Texas played in during the same time frame. I think that is a much more meaningful measure, especially considering that the preponderance of our football recruits continued to be the 2-star athletes while UT routinely raked in the “blue chip” athletes, along with Texas A&M. That is something that the trolls will never come to terms with.

I remember reading naming Kingsbury Co-Offensive Coordinator was a “chip” played to keep him from following Holgorsen to OK State.

At this point the new coaches are still learning where the office coffee maker is located. So it’s really too early to assess their skill. But if any of you take time to review and digest his background, Hays has D1 experience and his backgroud it will greatly compliment and support Nesbitt. It appears Hays could have more input than any of the past OL Coaches.

I wouldn’t worry too much about FCS vs FBS experience. These are “Asst Coach Positions” and asst coaches are all about X’s & O’s, position techiques and skill improvement. That’s the same whether it’s FCS or FBS. In fact a FCS coach has to be more creative and detailed because he doesn’t have the players with “great natural talent”.

Here’s more on Hays

The architect of West Texas A&M’s high-octane spread offenses from 2003-05, Lee Hays enters his second season as Baylor’s offensive coordinator and first as quarterbacks coach.
In Hays’ first season at Baylor, the Bears’ offense averaged 23.6 points per game, its highest mark since 1996 (24.2 ppg), and 315.2 yards per contest. The spread attack also allowed Baylor to break nearly every school game and season passing record, as the 2006 Bears ranked third in the Big 12 and 11th nationally in passing yards per game (275.0 ypg).

West Texas A&M enjoyed its most successful season in 55 years in 2005, largely due to the success of Hays’ offense. The Buffaloes went 10-2 to record their first winning season since 1998 The 2005 Buffalo offense led the NCAA Division II ranks in passing offense at 363.8 yards per game, while ranking No. 7 in scoring offense (40.3 ppg) and No. 9 in total offense (477.3 ypg). WTAMU also led Division II in pass completions (361) and was second in attempts (540), marking the third straight season it placed among the nation’s top three in both categories. Hays’ 2005 offense set school records for completion percentage (.669) and total offense yards per attempt (6.9 ypa).

During his 11-year coaching career, Hays has coached five All-Americans, 25 first-team all-conference players, three conference offensive Linemen of the Year award winners, one Dave Rimington Award winner and two NFL Draft picks. His coaching tenure has also helped produce five conference championship teams and six NCAA Division II playoff entrants.

Before launching his coaching career, Hays served in the United States Marine Corps from 1987 through 1996 where he rose to the rank of staff sergeant and completed Marine Corps Sniper School. He served America as both a staff noncommissioned officer and as a recon marine during his military career.

I have a coworker from Alabama who basically ignores when the Aggies, TSips, Tigers, and everyone else mess with him about his team. I asked him how he did it. How did he just let all of it roll off his back. You know what he said to me? When you KNOW your program is the best, you don’t ever have to defend it.

My point is I LOVE how Longhorns come into a UH board to defend their overrated, underperforming team. Stay classy Horns. Good luck with Baylor next year. Now that RG3 is gone, maybe ya’ll have a shot.

Earlier one of the trolls posted a comment about UH being second tier in the UH News poll, and he is right. But the problem isn’t UH; rather it is the pervasive bias built into the poll. Chas’ response was dead on. What constitutes “Tier One” and if you are Tier One in one poll but not in another then what can you call yourself?

The second point is that the guy who posted the information clearly doesn’t understand what it means to be Tier One as a research institution. That status recognizes the quality of not only the faculty but also the student body. There have to be very high quality undergrad and grad students at an institution for it to achieve Tier One research status. UH suffers from an image problem more than a problem of substance.

This is due in part to the fact that UH does not have a homogeneous student population as does, for example, Rice or SMU or even UT or ATM. As an urban institution UH serves what can only be called a diverse population and this just kills the school with narrow ratings systems such as US News. And to be perfectly clear, people in higher education are fully aware of this bias in rankings and if you follow the discourse in the journals of higher education you will see some pretty vitriolic statements about US News and it’s ilk, which are much more geared to selling magazines than in presenting an accurate portrayal of an institution’s status.

To be specific, what are the populations which comprise the student body at UH? Well there are basically two, although each has sub groupings to be sure.

First, UH does have a “traditional” student base. These are students who move from high school to college and maintain a full-time academic status. At this moment there are probably around 20,000 such students, the vast majority of whom are the traditional 18-23 year old students going full time to college and perhaps working part time. Currently about 5000 of these students live on campus. That number will double over the next few years. In other words, they are the most “traditional” of the traditional students. Academically they are comparable to the student populations at other state schools and are virtually identical to the student body at Texas Tech.

However, UH does have one distinction which works against it with some people in our community. UH’s student population is characterized by racial diversity, being about 40% white. This should be a point of pride, but is often referred to derisively in private conversations. Now, to be sure the fans and alumni of the very institutions with which we compete for students extol the virtues of racial diversity when they are recruiting athletes. But if you take a serious look at the demographics of many of these institutions you will find a very interesting piece of information. Look at the percentage of the student bodies which are non-white. Subtract the number of athletes on campus and their so-called diversity goes in the tank. In other words, diversity applies primarily to their athletic programs and not to their student bodies in general. I won’t name names here, but visit any of the campuses of the Big 12, for example, and you will come away with a keen awareness of what I am pointing out. Bottom line, there is more than a little hypocrisy going on here.

In the past, UH has admitted students who were not prepared for college work at this level. Students who score less than 1000 on the traditional version of the SAT are going to be very challenged in the classroom with other students who are, for whatever reason, better prepared for the academic challenges of a traditional college education. UH has admitted these students in the past in a misguided attempt to provide educational access to students who perhaps have not come from a middle class environment where one or both parents also had attended college. It is part of the mandate that the school seeks to adhere to, and that is noble but perhaps a bit nieve. In addition admitting these poorly qualified students meets state funding requirements, based on enrollment and this was a disservice to these students.

The rise of alternative educational routes such as Houston Community College and UH Downtown (which is open admissions) has taken a lot of pressure off the campus to admit these students who are much better served at HCC and Downtown where their special needs can be addressed. They typically have never faired will at the main campus, which is reflected in the freshmen retention rates published by US News. This will definitely improve over the coming years. UH will gladly accept these students as transfers once they have better equipped themselves to succeed in this more competitive academic environment.

But what seems to define UH in the public eye is the second population UH serves. These are students who are older, many are married and they pursue a college degree part time. This population is almost as large as the population of traditional students. It is hard to get data on this population. In grad school back in the 80s I participated in a study that identified these students as presenting with significantly lower SAT scores. However, that did not show up in their classroom performance. They were focused and committed students. They commute to the campus, fight the parking, take a half time course load and return to the community where they live.

This situation is by no means unique to UH, but is shared by most of the urban institutions which emerged after World War II. Our president came from the University of South Florida and brings a wealth of experience leading a modern urban academic institution. She is committed to bringing UH up to standard across the board, but must do so without turning our back on those students who historically have been the core of our student population.

This is a goal that can be met. Many of us, myself included, came from working class families where neither parent attended college. That should never be a limitation to academic or vocational achievement. I am forever grateful that the University of Houston provided me the opportunity to get not only a college degree, but a professional education which has stood me well over the past 40 years. Unfortunately, those values are viewed negatively in ratings systems such as US News, where the data is skewed to favor traditional, private four year institutions. The only purpose such ratings serve is to bias the public and prospective students as they seek information for planning their academic careers. In time this will become more and more clear. In the meanwhile UH fans and supporters have a right to understand these ratings. From an unbiased perspective UH provides all the resources, every single one of them, to allow any student who is motivated to do so to obtain a Tier One education.

I apologize for the length of this post, but I grow weary of referrals to biased ratings systems based upon a set of criteria which emphatically do not apply to any of the modern urban educational institutions that have grown up in this country over the past 60 years. Fortunately more reasonable ratings systmes such as The Princeton Review hold a more unbiased view of schools such as UH. You don’t often hear this information quoted by those such as the trolls on this board or even the general public which tends to favor the older, more established institutions. By the way, the student tenure at even these schools nationally now sits at around 6 years, so even they are changing in reality although this doesn’t show up in their propaganda. The old guard is intent on protecting its “turf” and truth is the first casualty of this battle for public acceptance.

Fantastic post. I would like for you to repost this frequently when we get troll over load here. By the way the five year delay in competing in the swc was to give the old schools time to begin competitive baskekball programs to try to equal UH.

I am one of those underachievers you described. Lowly SAT score. Overwhelmed by my first day at the college level. Unsure of my potential. Minority. However, the naive experiment you described was a success. Maybe serving your country does not qualify, it did at one time in our history. Generally, I do appreciate and agree with your comment(post). Not just the admission policies as a negative outcome.

Funny how that 95% of UH admissions couldn’t get admitted to SMU or Big 12 schools but yet we filled two full dorms in the quad with national merit scholars in the 1990’s. Half of the UT admissions couldn’t hack a semester in UH’s Honor college. When I was there in the early 90’s it was full of Ivy League and upper teir university PhD’s as professors who unite to weed out under performing national merit scholars.

CPA, I couldn’t agree more. When you look at the achievements of UH alumni there is a great deal to be proud of. Thanks for noticing. I’m not quite sure what I need to get over, but I will work on that.

“Monfort” or elen or whatever your name is, where did I say anything about “worried about protecting their turf”? If you can point that out I will be happy to reply. Otherwise, let’s move on. I’ll share a little secret with you though. My son went to Rice. You would be amazed at how many Rice students take a course or two at UH. They do this for many reasons, sometimes simply because they cannot get it at Rice. And generally speaking Rice accepts these classes for full Rice credit. Doesn’t sounld like a turf battle to me. But you keep making up statements so you can shoot them down. Looks like fun.

Thames, I really don’t know a whole lot about Memphis, either the city or the school. They probably have a lot of part time students who work and go to school. That’s a guess. I know South Florida, Central Florida, and the Florida state schools in the Miami area including Florida International, as well as Louisville and UAB are similar to UH. Not identical mind you, but similar. I will tell you these urban schools popped up right after WW II in many cases. They are typically underfunded by the state legislatures; UH certainly has been for decades. The politics of that is obvious. The older, more established state schools (the Univeristy of [name your state]), are often a majority in the state legislatures and they control the purse strings.

I will share an interesting event that illustrates this point. I was in Orlando in ’03 when I happened to read a story in the local newspaper. As in most states there is an annual battle for funding for state schools. Again the established schools typically, by any measure, come out ahead in this battle. But (I guess) to settle the issue, the legislators for both the University of Florida and Florida State came up with a genius plan that would settle this and (to this day I cannot believe I actually read this) HELP the newer urban schools with their funding.

It seems that this plan would allow the two large state schools, Florida and Florida State, get their budge needs met as a first step. Basically they could feed at the trough until they were full. Now get this. The remaining schools would be allowed to then fight over the remaining funds to meet their needs. I mean, isn’t that neat? And the rationalization was that the urban schools would be HELPED because they would then know how much money would be available(to fight over).

Now let that logic sink in and you get an idea of the uphill battle most urban schools face when it comes to financing the education of their students. And I am sure the Florida legislators did this with a straight face.

While we have not had exactly the same experience in Texas I assure you it is not a level playing field. UT and A&M pretty much dominate the funding process and everyone else has to fight over the left overs. Tell me you disagree with that and I will tell you that you have never observed our legislature at work. I have. I have even had lunch with legislators to make points on behalf of UH, as well as local funding needs in my area of Houston.

I will trust the decisions made by Rhodes and Levine until I see the outcome next year. I am not sure why everyone is harping on FBS experience. Has anyone noticed Oregon’s success? Do you know here Chip Kelly their head coach came from?

Chip Kelly was the OC at New Hampshire before becoming the head coach at Oregon. Prior to his job at Oregon, he had never held a head coach position and never coached at the FBS level. I think we give all these new coaches a try we might just have the next Chip Kelly on our hands. The alternatives that people are not seeing are coaches like Rick Neuhisel at UCLA, he was an experienced coach that came home to be the great savior of the program and look what UCLA has done under his tenure.

Rhoades is either over his head or purse-strung by Rhenu. I don’t care. This is a complete departmental markdown. Idiotic. 13-1, a national ranking, and all the efforts of Case Keenum brought you a staff of lower division coaches.

When I said,that we took over the SWC,I was refering to all sports,from major to minor.What is really impressive is that we do what we do with ‘developed’ talent,not a steady stream of top 100’s as AM and Texas get year in,year out.Look at our receiver from Hearne,walk on,tore Penn State, a new you know what.C USA player of the Year..

UHFan79, how do you know I’m in the minority? Because some people that post on a blog think so? This was a 13-1 team with national recognition tht has reduced itself to handfull of nobodies. The defensive coordinator pick was a stunner by itself. The guy was an absolute failure at Vandy.

They might be the Bad News Baears and shock the world but I have serious reservations about the capabilities of this ragtag dime-a-dozen gang.

Because people who agree with me are in the majority. No, just kidding; that’s the way too many people on blogs think. You raise a good point. I will respond that I am pretty active in civic affairs, talk to people from many alumni groups, and talk to many, many UH alums. Most of them are taking a wait-and-see attitude. A few with whom I have spoken are really negative and a few are really positive, based primarily on the background and experience of the new hires.

Truth is none of us really knows. We will have to wait. But I can tell you this: there is an element in the fan base that ain’t gonna like it no matter what the outcome. Whether you are one of those or not I don’t know. In the end we’ll just have to play the games and see how it comes out.